Divide and Conquer

By DAVID A. COOK
President

If you pick up a newspaper or turn on cable news, you’d be hard-pressed to avoid reading about endless political scandals. By now, “Hunter Biden” is a name most of the country is familiar with, and the phrase “Trump Indictment” appears in every corner of our news media.

Addressing possible political corruption or examining current or former politicians for possible criminal action is important, but more often than not, it really only has one intention and serves only one purpose: to distract and divide the voters.

I’ve met plenty of lifelong Republicans, and I know plenty of lifelong Democrats, and one thing you’ll find is that on most issues the average American agrees with each other. When you talk to hard-working people in deep red rural Missouri, you’ll hear the same complaints from hard-working people in our biggest and bluest cities.

THE SAME DESIRES
When you strip away culture war issues and scandals, nearly every voter has the same desire: they want their communities to be safe, they want their local school to provide a good education, and they want their jobs to pay good wages and provide decent benefits.

Americans aren’t lazy. Most of us want to work hard and earn a good living. The problem is that working hard is no longer a guarantee of a good living, and rather than voters uniting to demand change from politicians to directly address this issue, we are often caught up fighting each other over the scandal of the week. Believe me, that’s how politicians like it!

If we weren’t arguing online about Donald Trump’s boxes of documents, or Hunter Biden’s laptop, maybe we’d finally realize just how much we have in common. How often have you or someone you know said that they work hard but don’t make enough money? How many younger people are bogged down by student loan debt and unable to buy a home?

The following statement is a simple frustrating fact that absolutely no one can dispute regardless of your political leanings: working class people are making less money now than they were a generation ago, but CEOs and those at the top are making record amounts of money. The rich have gotten much, much, much richer. The poor have gotten poorer, and the middle class is shrinking at an alarming rate.

PRODUCING MORE, PAID LESS
These problems hurt Republicans and Democrats. It doesn’t matter how you feel about abortion or gun control: your labor is less valued now than it was a few decades ago. It doesn’t matter what your stance is on immigration: American workers are producing more and being paid less. Whether you’re watching Fox News and shaking your first at the “corrupt” Dept. of Justice or rooting for Donald Trump to go to prison, you are less likely to retire in comfort or afford a visit to the doctor than your parents and grandparents.

These are facts that are not in dispute. This is the reality we live in, and if we allow ourselves to be distracted by these culture war issues then we’ll continue to be focused on fighting one another instead of standing together and forcing real change.

PASSIONS ARE REAL
I understand that cultural issues animate people, and I understand that someone’s passion for issues like those are real.
However, are these issues more important than the ability for a hard-working person to afford the doctor? Do those issues truly matter more than being able to put food on our tables or being safe at work and retiring with dignity?

We’ve all heard the common refrain before: the America where a single income could raise a middle class family is gone. We hear people say it’s “vanished” or “disappeared.”

That’s not true. It didn’t slip out of existence by magic. To be clear: it was taken from us. Politicians and their corporate donors and friends spent decades dismantling that America. They did it for the simplest reasons. It wasn’t to establish a one-world government or some other nonsense.

FOR THE MONEY
They did it for money. If they can squeeze more money out of their workers without paying them more money, they will. If they can convince politicians and voters to vote against their own interests by keeping the minimum wage too low, defunding the social safety net to force people to take low-paying jobs, and save themselves money by reducing basic benefits then make no mistake – that’s what they will do.

Working class people have so much more in common than we have that divides us, and our dreams and goals are not that different. If we can set aside our relatively minor differences and focus our considerable energy on rebuilding the strongest and richest middle class in the world, we can improve lives for ourselves and for future generations.

SOLIDARITY
“Solidarity” may be a word most commonly associated with Labor unions, but it’s not just for union members. Solidarity is critical for all of us to succeed. If we are truly together, we can change the world.